Posted on 04/20/2015 6:51:40 PM PDT by BenLurkin
In a ruling with major implications for California's water conservation campaign, a state appeals court on Monday ruled that a tiered water rate structure used by the city of San Juan Capistrano to encourage conservation was unconstitutional..
The Orange County city used a rate structure that charged customers who used small amounts of water a lower rate than customers who used larger amounts.
But the 4th District Court of Appeal struck down San Juan Capistrano's fee plan, saying it violated voter-approved Proposition 218, which prohibits government agencies from charging more for a service than it costs to provide it.
"We do hold that above-cost-of-service pricing for tiers of water service is not allowed by Proposition 218 and in this case, [the city] did not carry its burden of proving its higher tiers reflected its costs of service," the court said in its ruling.
The stakes are high because at least two-thirds of California water providers, including the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, use some form of the tiered rate system.
Gov. Jerry Brown immediately lashed out at the decision, saying it puts "a straitjacket on local government at a time when maximum flexibility is needed. My policy is and will continue to be: employ every method possible to ensure water is conserved across California.”
(Excerpt) Read more at latimes.com ...
So Fairy Brown was upset? Big D!
I can use the meter but I just haven’t gotten around to doing it.
I did look at a few monthly water bills and my usage was running between about 30 gallons and 38 gallons for the months, per day.
If I get in the mood to make this a game I will see what I can do with it. A problem is that I don’t want to install a urinal at this address, and can’t really afford to buy a waterless one and a 1.28 gallon toilet, at this time.
Still, if these threads keep popping up, maybe I will see what I can get my water usage down to.
It was a lot more than that. Local governments were demanding that developers turn over 5-10% of any property they intended to develop as fees for various things. The state government was going overboard with excessive fees too.
I was talking to a liberal neighbor of mine who knows I’m conservative, and we both agreed that runoff and sewage should be recycled instead of just treating it preliminarily and pumping it out to sea.
The technologies are already in place for this. With some rerouting of drainage systems it seems very doable despite the “ich” factor which appears to be the main political obstacle.
This ruling makes entirely too much sense.Liberal heads are exploding.
I fixed it. I just go pee in the back yard at 5:00am.
Its my contribution to being green....uh yellow...uh green.... whatever.
At my beach shack before this address, I did make a homemade urinal outside on the side of the shack, with water to it for flushing, and connected it to the sewer.
It was so the guys could use it during BBQs while the females had the inside toilet.
I found it quite useful.
You may be surprised at how much this is already being done.
The Orange County (Calif) WWTP has been pumping discharge into the ground to replenish the aquifer for over ten years.
We are talking about millions of gallons per day.
'Water Reuse' is big in Calif., Arizona, and other states.
BUMP!!!!!!
With some degree of treatment, I trust. Otherwise, it’s going to be pretty darned sludgy. They do this with raw sewage?
That is interesting, have you thought of rigging up some homemade gray water, or is your place too tidy for that kind of jury rigging?
Yes, the water is actually can be fit for consumption upon discharge from the plant (depending on the plant). It just sounds revolting.
The wizards in OC actually coined a marketing phrase: "Toilet to tap"
It did not sell well.
I meant redirecting your washing machine water to some safe area on the ground, to take a load off of your septic tank.
I live in Orange County.
The Sewage is treated to a degree. All solids are removed and the Treated Water is actually used to Irrigate the Fauna in nearly all the Public Greenbelts, including Plants and Trees along the local Highway Medians.
Water not needed for Irrigation is pumped into the Aquifer.
If there is a Purple Reclaimed Water sign, it’s not a good idea to sip the Water from the Sprinklers.
A buddy and I got stranded in a village in Mexico for about 10 days, sleeping sitting up in his little 2 seater Fiat Spider. We frequently drank water from a hose about 20 feet from the car, but on our last day there, an English speaker told us that the water from that hose was not for drinking, I think the problem was that it was not fully treated, but I'm not sure. I never got sick from being in Mexico,
You drank bad water and you were driving around in a Fiat and you’re here to tell the Tale?
I’m not sure, but I think you had better go buy a Powerball Ticket. It might just work out for you. LOL
Actually it wasn’t a village, it was two bars across the road from each other, with some kind of a small rivalry between them.
I also made a very lucky guess at that place that may have saved me some great trouble, back then I used to arm wrestle for drinks and cash, and when I was doing it on a Saturday night at one of the bars and beating all of the studs, they all wanted me to take on a burly older man.
Even though I was well into my cups and really into the pumped up crowd, something about the guy made me think that I should put on a show to make him look good, and let him win, that really goes against my type, but I did it, in an epic battle, I almost beat him but slowly let him get the better of me, in a show that had the studs all cheering him as the one guy who could beat me.
It turned out he was a retired federal cop, not only was he so happy with me that he took us to his home and fed us and was extremely friendly the rest of the time we were there (which gave me prestige), near the end of our stay, two uniformed federal cops showed up and were so scary, and studying my friend and I so hard and with such cold eyes, that we did our best to avoid them the entire evening that they were there although we kept an eye on them, my take on the evening was that my gut feeling to throw that arm wrestling match, saved us from something very bad, because the retired cop who they were visiting protected us.
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